A Bunch of Burts

If summer has not arrived yet for you, do not fret, it IS coming.

And in the balmy summer days, or hot and humid rainy season as it were, it is important to stay hydrated, is it not?

In the interest of drinking less sugar we enjoy homemade sodas.
Fill a glass 1/4 full with your favorite juice, and fill up the rest of the way with plain soda water. Of course ice cubes make it really chilly and wonderful, and don’t forget the straw!

Loads less sugar than soda or a full glass of juice, fun bubbles to make it more exciting than plain water and stretches the juice too, making this treat easy on your budget.

This works for me, as I am enjoying one right now. Cranberry/grape to be be specific. mmmmm.

I will see you at Shannons for more ideas from the wise women at WFMW,

This week, Works-For-Me-Wednesday’s edition is what does NOT work for you. (Doesn’t-Work-For-Me)
I was not sure if it meant to post about things you do not like and how to fix them, or ‘hints’, ‘helps’, recipes, ect…. that turn out to be not so helpful or do not live up to their claims.

I am going with the later.

I love recipes. I love to bake. One of my favorite things to check out of the Bookmobile (mobile library for those of us who live waaaay out in the sticks,) was cookbooks. I especially like the cookbooks that give small snippets of info regarding the history of the dish, ingredients or country of origin.

One of my favorite cookbooks is one I found in the Mission Barrel while we were in Bible School. It is called The Heritage of Southern Cooking by Camille Glenn.

Fun, fun, cookbook. Great old pictures and anecdotes all the way through. To be honest, I only make a couple of things out of the book, one of which is Chocolate Finale Cake, which we renamed Chocolate Sin on a Plate. It is soooo good. But the book is great fun for me just to look through every once in a while and think about making something else from it.
The drink section is a riot. With perhaps one exception, all the recipes call for alcohol of some kind, and the ones that don’t, list it as optional.
I knew several ladies from the South in our years of training, and when I teased one of them about the drink recipes, she quickly retored, “How do you think we are so hospitable all the time!?” Hahahaha, ummm, you were joking, right?

But I digress.

I try to make a hot breakfast each morning for the family, but tend to get stuck in the same dishes over and over.

Searching for new ideas, I saw a tasty sounding recipe for cheese blintzes and having had them before at a restaurant, really wanted to try them out.

Not the actual crepes I served, but tasty looking don’t you think?

The family lliked them, they are healthy, give a good mix of dairy, protien and bit of carbs, low sugar too, but… I am NOT making them again.

2 hours they took me to make. 2 hours!

Making the little crepes on my sort-of non-stick pan. Filling the little darlings with the cheese mixture and then baking them. I can only do one sheet at a time in my miniature oven, and so by the time I was done, it was nearly time to think about making lunch.

No ladies, cheese blintzes do NOT work for me. At home anyways. Maybe someone out there has a tip to make this easier, but for now, they shall remain restaurant food in our family.

Head over to Shannon’s at Rocks in My Dryer for other warnings and caveats today, they may save you a headache, money, time, or all three!

I know, I know, many of you are still trying to coax spring to arrive much less thinking summer. Well, maybe at least you are thinking summer, longing for it to arrive.

One of our favorite parts of hot season is the wonderful fruits we have available.
I had never been a huge fan of mango until we moved to Thailand, and now we love them. All kinds, and even unripe green mangos.
Oh yes, a bit of green mango is so yummy and refreshing! mmmm.

One of the problems I had with said mango though is how to get them off thier pit. When preparing ripe ones especially, the process can be messy and frustrating.

We just recently visited our friends in Mukdahan and I saw her cutting mango so efficiently and I wondered how I had never done it this way before.

Simplicity. Brilliant.

OK, here goes with the photo tutorial.

Step one.
Peel the mango. No picture necessary right?

Hold the mango broad side up.

With a knife make diagonal cuts down to the pit along the length of the mango.

Please ignore the dishes in the sink. Lazy children.

Now cut diagonally the other way.

Starting on the side nearest you, cut horizontally along the top of the pit over a bowl and the cut mango morsels will drop neatly into your bowl.

Of course take care of your finger tips, or it will be even harder the next time to hold the mango still. haha

See how close you can get the pit? Slick and easy.

Repeat on other side.
Sometimes there is a bit of mango left on the side of the pit. You can slice that off too, now that you know where the pit boundaries are.

There you have it!
Yummy.
Tasty.
Delirous.
( Do you know that movie reference? )

Here is a completely free bonus mango-eating idea.

Stir one container of plain or vanilla yogurt with a 1/4 tsp of ground ginger. (Add vanilla too if using plain yogurt) Coat mango pieces and enjoy.
As we travelled home from the NE this week, I found PEACHES! at a roadside stand. They were so tasty with the mangos in this cool and sweet ’salad.

For more tips and tricks, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer

Just have to say, I have NO idea how all you ladies are able to post so quickly! I am amazed. I have been watching Shannon’s site for the last 40 minutes or so, but I am still # 36. You all are amazing.

How did you celebrate Easter this year?
Did it sneak up on you? Were you under a foot of snow? Did you have a big meal with family? Did you praise God that Jesus did not stay dead, but rose again?

How wonderful a day to remember, that Christ was not bound by death, but willingly endured it to enable us, His creation, to live forever with Him in Glory.

Is there better news? That our Savior triumphed over sin and death and broke the bondage those two things have over us? What a contrast to the message that surrounds the people of Thailand. Buddhism’s end goal is to be swallowed up in death. To disappear into the void, to cease to exist. Eternal life is not necessarily attractive to a Buddhist, because to them, they are trying to escape the cycle, to come to an end to their lives, an end to their ‘tries’ at being a good enough person.

Eternal life for them means work, not rest. Praise God that the Truth is He did all the work for us! We can fully rest in His finished work.

We are so thankful for the church we have become a part of here in Chiang Mai. Holidays are always hard to be away from home and family and friends, but we are finding fellowship and communion with the Body of Christ here in Chiang Mai, and are honored to be able to worship with them.

We attended the sunrise service, which, to the dismay of the kids, involved meeting at church at 5:15am. We then caravaned out to a resevoir for a worship service, egg hunt and breakfast.

The eggs here in Thailand are brown. They were undyed and hidden in the dry brush and leaves. Out of 150 of them, we found 2. But no matter, we all shared the eggs and other food that was brought for breakfast.
Some of our breakfast fare was a bit ‘exotic’ for us, but most was very good. (I chose to stick to the chicken eggs and decided I was not up for ant egg omelet. Sorry Pastor Bill )

Can you spot what I brought to breakfast? I was a bit puzzled when no one seemed to be eating them. Then I realized that they thought the cinnamon rolls were a snack, or dessert for after breakfast. How silly! Cinnamon rolls are not snack, they are breakfast!

After church, we tried to find a western-style Easter Dinner at one of the restaurants in town, but were not too successful. The kids and Greg decided that hamburgers would suffice and so enjoyed a rare meal of a juicy and messy burger!

It may not be a spiral sliced ham or lamb roast, but it was good!

May the reality of Easter be present in your hearts and minds each day, looking to Jesus for your daily needs and strength.

He is Risen, He is Risen indeed!

Well, our week was a bit caddy-whampus, and the Cashew Chicken was made on the scheduled day, but it did get made. Points for that right?

I even remembered to take pictures as I was making it!

You know your own family size, so you can adjust portions accordingly.

I used 1 kg of chicken cut into small pieces and about 4 cups of chopped vegetables. You can use whatever veggies you like, we tend to have onions, peppers (sweet), carrots and broccoli.

First, gather your sauces and such.

You will need: dried red chilies, Thai chili paste, oyster sauce, some soup flavoring ( envelope) and good soy sauce. The brand pictured is called Golden Mountain sauce. I believe all these things can be found at most any Asian market and many grocery stores now.

Before cooking, chop chicken, vegetables and mince garlic, about 3-4 cloves.
Heat a couple of TBL oil in a wok or large skillet over fairly high heat.
One of the keys to Thai cooking, is using high heat for a short time to cook the food quickly.

Stir fry the garlic until it just begins to turn brown, then add the chopped chicken.
To the chicken and garlice add chili paste.

There is room here for some fiddling. I found that for our family, we like the taste of this dish more as I added more chili paste. I use nearly 1/2 the jar at a time. This chili paste is really not all that spicy, just flavorful, although you may want to begin by adding less for the first time and increase it as your family tolerates.

Stir and cook the chicken in the chili paste until cooked through.
Add a small handful of the dried red chilies. This is what will add the most heat, so if you like it hotter, add more.

Add your oyster sauce. I have not measured this, but you can see the size puddle on the utensil.
Try somewhere around 2 TBL
Stir in a bit a bit of water, approx 1/4 to 1/2 cup and sprinkle some soup base/seasoning in. Stir to mix. If you cannot get powdered soup base, just crush up a boullion cube and add it. You should have cooked chicken in a reddish gravy at this point.

Keeping the heat high, stir fry the veggies for just a minute or two. You do not want them to be overly soft and mushy. They should still be slightly crisp.
(at this point you can also add your cashews and cook them in at this point, but some kids in our family do not like them and so we add them on top. No sense wasting perfectly good cashews on fussy children.)

Serve with rice, of course and enjoy. Aroy!

Here is a close up of the brand chili paste I use, the best one we have found. I know it is available in the US, but cannot say for elsewhere.

Happy cooking!

P. S. If you like to stir fry often, I love the spatula-type tool that I used in these pictures. I highly suggest looking at a cooking store or asian market for one. It is wonderful, and I have fewer spills using it than I did when I just used a large spoon or metal spatula. In Thai it is called a daa-lii-oo, if that helps.